Historian Lu
Ann Homza took five students to Pamplona, Spain over spring break to study
handwritten manuscripts of court cases from the 1600s that dealt with such
matters. These William & Mary students had one week to sift through
documented court records written in an archaic form of Spanish, as well as in
handwriting that at times was nearly impossible to read.

The five—Sagra
Alvarado ’15, Jessie Dzura ’13, Crosby Enright ’14, Tracey Johnson ’14 and Jack
Middough ’15—had come to Pamplona prepared. They spent the fall semester in a
specialized class with Homza, learning how to decode the 400-year-old Spanish
they would have to deal with in the Pamplona archives. Read about their
preparation here.

The first
thing the students started working with in their preparation period were typed
transcripts of the original manuscripts. Homza explained that the students
needed to learn the unfamiliar forms and conventions of Spanish legalese before
tackling the additional challenges of the centuries-old penmanship that awaited
them in the archives of Pamplona. It’s the same sort of preparation necessary
for professional historians.

“History is
interpretation,” says Homza. “And this trip is true to life in terms of what
historians do.”

When spring
break arrived, it was time for the students to depart. Some took exams early,
some had to work late into the night before the flight, but all five arrived in
Spain ready to work on their unique research topics. Topics included everything
from spousal abuse to a class of economically empowered widows.

“I found
three cases of women who were tobacco smugglers,” says Alvarado who began with
a desire to research contraband. “I was reading about the process: where did
they get it, where did they hide it.”

Alvarado
explained that because tobacco was a state enterprise, any illicit product is
essentially black market. The details she continues were hard to get to, as her
manuscripts’ handwriting was particularly difficult to read.

Johnson, on
the other hand, had less of a problem with the handwriting of her documents.
She discovered a previously unknown role of women in Spanish society as forces
within the local economy.

“I looked at
old notario records,” she says,
explaining that a notario is what we
would understand as a public notary. “I found a lot of old contracts of widows
dealing with money and making loans to other people”

The veteran
of the trip, Enright chose to expand on her previous work with rogue nuns.

“I did a
twist on my misbehaving nuns and did misbehaving priests, priests who would
dance in the streets, play instruments and put on theatre” she says, explaining
that the priests were taken to court for neglecting their sacred duties in
favor of music and theatre.

Another
student chose to research the role of religious conjuring in Spanish society.
Middough says his cases involved priests who were hired as conjurors, one to
banish a worm infestation and one to bring about a rainstorm for the crops. His
cases ended up in court for different reasons. The worm wizard went to court
because he wasn’t paid at all. The rainmaker, by contrast, was paid in advance;
he simply ran off with the money to spend on drinks, women and gambling.

Dzura’s
research focused on domestic violence at first, and then evolved into a study
of acceptable reasons for ending a marriage.

“My topic started off as violence against women in the 17th
century,” says Dzura. “It evolved into an interest of ‘bad treatments’ in
marriage and what it took for the courts to recognize reasons for divorce.”

Difficult handwriting and strange syntax usages were not the
only problems that these students faced. Homza points out that the content of
these cases was confusing in its own right.

“Sometimes the cases are so enormous you get into them and
you get lost, you’re not sure what you’re reading by whom” says Homza. “It’s
not as if there are little subsections with sticky notes telling you what comes
next.”

Students may not have sticky notes, but they do have the help
and support of the archivists who are able to lend a helping hand or even just
a word of encouragement. That’s why Homza and her students made it a point to
catch up with retired archivist, mentor, and friend Don Jose Luis Sales Tirapiu
before departing Spain. Tirapiu is credited with building the Archivo
Diocesano de Pamplona to be what it is today.

“Don Jose Luis Sales Tirapiu organized over 35 years
this whole archive. We got to spend a little part of an afternoon with him,”
says Homza. She
has worked with Tirapiu in previous years, and says she was happy to be able to
reconnect with the man behind the archive.

The students’ hard work wasn’t finished after
a week of sifting through these documents however. They then returned home to
start synthesizing their findings and preparing to present this research at the
Annual William and Mary Undergraduate Research Symposium for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies.

“The presentation solidified my Pamplona experience,” says
Alvarado. “While I was presenting I was happy to share my findings with the WM
community and bring these historical figures to life.”

Homza,
now William & Mary’s dean for educational policy, has no plans on letting
this trip fall by the wayside. She has started to recruit a new class of junior
archivists, including Alvarado and Middough, who will return to Pamplona next
year.